Hello,
firstly, if everything you ‘know’ about Africa you got from SP, then you need to do some reading or at least interact more frequently with the likes of me 🙂 But, that was/is some show, awesome! show. OMG , having the balls to name a character Starvin Marvin, I guess how they used irony viz stereotypes in general. So, I just had to share my shared admiration for SP.
Now to answer your question: I did not really follow the trial. So, I would not hazard any definitive predictions. Hold on, lets tun on the TV and see what the verdict is. Appears his going to get (off) on manslaughter. I base this purely on the judge stating that he acted ‘negligently’. That might, based on gossip I picked up at work, mean as little as a suspended sentence. I reckon that might be a bit light, even if he wasn’t in a rage and willfully killed her, which I am able to believe, he still shot through a door at someone not posing an immanent threat. Surely, he knew, even intended kill ‘someone’.
But, let the social scientist interject and say that this speaks volumes of the general state of violence and resultant trauma that characterizes everyday SA. This violence, is interpersonal and indirect through an oppressive political-economy. We have unemployment at a rate of 25%-45%, depending on your definition of poverty. Then there is sexual violence: 1 out 3 SA women will be raped in her lifetime. To this we must add the regular wife-beaters and the cultural mores of victim blaming. A recent study found a major proportion of our population (me included, to be honest) suffer from some or other stress related Psychological disorder. I am not Psychologist, but google the various anxiety disorders, severe depression and I hypothesize that it is in this context where some meaningful work on “Complex Post Traumatic Stress” or Disease of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) can be done. I am not a Psychologist, my own academic research has made me wonder if SA is not the set of contexts in which some or other version of this disorder is more likely to manifest. This has an historical context, I am not getting into now;-). Just for example, when I was in grade three-seven, I would see people being ‘necklaced’.
But white, middle-class people like Oscar and myself don’t have to live this on a daily basis, but there is a persistent white hysteria about violent crime (armed robbery, car-jacking, murder etc.) Have penetrated, increasingly the still largely white, middle class’s lives. We all know someone who has been afflicted. Unfortunately, the link between race and wealth means that middle class discourse has largely taken on racist tendencies. The Other ‘we’ fear is dark shadow, comes at night to tie us up, rape our women and the slit our throats and take ‘our’ stuff. I believe Oscar might have been caught up in that mass-psychosis. His fear of the stranger at night, in conjunction with his handicap MIGHT have gotten the better of him. Now being careful not to be slanderous and call the man a racist, let me conclude pointing out that lived in a security complex or ‘gated community’. This was his choice. Finally the man’s fixation with guns, suggests an underlying general fear for his security.
I feel compelled to conclude more generally on SA post-apartheid. Will keep it to a single paragraph. I believe that white guilt is another part of these dynamics. We have not dealt with our past in any material sense. So instead of doing what we failed to do in 20 years ago, which is to NOT place property right off limits of the negotiation and actually make some sincere and significant material concessions, we do what the (i)rational actor, the economic man does, which is to accumulate as much as possible in aid of our security, physical and economic. This is understandable, but in the long run, it will show itself to be the wrong option and morally it is reprehensible, the most unequal society in the world to deal with our guilt through retail therapy and other material and cultural acts of distinction. We might have gotten away ‘ít’ (the lurking, creeping doom that is insecurity in all senses, including keeping our feelings of guilt at bay), had China not all but, monopolized unskilled labour intensive production for the foreseeable future.
Sorry, I rambled a bit, but I am passionate about these things from an ethical and intellectual perspective. If I broke some forum rules, please let me know and I will rectify. But, have mercy. I only joined last night.
